As a slight detour from the recent series of posts I thought I would share a diagram I drew on a whiteboard while in India for a week last year helping Reliance Jio Infocomm with SID and eTOM.
The people on the project were mainly focused on eTOM and could, like most people grasp Business Processes much more easily than abstract data classes embodying the SID.
I explained the SID Product model to them in the way that I've detailed elsewhere in this series of blogs but while they could understand the difference between a Product Specification, a Resource Specification, and a Service Specification they couldn't really see how all this worked in terms of their business and when it came down to Customer Facing Services and Resource Facing Services they were completely lost.
It was on my last day with them that I drew this diagram on the whiteboard.
I had been going through the product model for the nth time and then suddenly I remembered an old piece of advice I had been given years ago "when explaining a data model talk process and when explaining a process model talk data".
I drew in the blue and red lines and talked about the eTOM processes they represented in terms of the SID classes and I saw the Reliance staffs' eyes light up. They got it!
The diagram shows that when performing the eTOM processes of Selling, Customer Subscription, Catalogue Management, and Marketing and Sales we move from Product Spec to Resource Spec, particularly the CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) such as handset, dongle, SIM, MSISDN etc and from Product Spec to Customer Facing Service Spec. When we are talking about Product Delivery we start in the Provider Equipment where the Resource Facing Services are provisioned to the delivery of the Product instance for the Customer.
I was so pleased with the effectiveness of the diagram I took a photo of it.
It is moments like this that make my job worth doing.
By the way, dear reader
The people on the project were mainly focused on eTOM and could, like most people grasp Business Processes much more easily than abstract data classes embodying the SID.
I explained the SID Product model to them in the way that I've detailed elsewhere in this series of blogs but while they could understand the difference between a Product Specification, a Resource Specification, and a Service Specification they couldn't really see how all this worked in terms of their business and when it came down to Customer Facing Services and Resource Facing Services they were completely lost.
It was on my last day with them that I drew this diagram on the whiteboard.
I had been going through the product model for the nth time and then suddenly I remembered an old piece of advice I had been given years ago "when explaining a data model talk process and when explaining a process model talk data".
I drew in the blue and red lines and talked about the eTOM processes they represented in terms of the SID classes and I saw the Reliance staffs' eyes light up. They got it!
The diagram shows that when performing the eTOM processes of Selling, Customer Subscription, Catalogue Management, and Marketing and Sales we move from Product Spec to Resource Spec, particularly the CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) such as handset, dongle, SIM, MSISDN etc and from Product Spec to Customer Facing Service Spec. When we are talking about Product Delivery we start in the Provider Equipment where the Resource Facing Services are provisioned to the delivery of the Product instance for the Customer.
I was so pleased with the effectiveness of the diagram I took a photo of it.
It is moments like this that make my job worth doing.
By the way, dear reader
- If you've got a comment on this or any of the other blogs please post it and I will try to reply to it as fast as I can (though some get lost in the flood of spam this blog garners)
- If you want ask a more detailed question then please email me using the address that can be found by clicking on the "view my complete profile" in the right hand panel
- If you would like me to provide more detailed help then there a range of solutions to fit most pockets, from email support through to site visits, just ask. My consulting rates are not outrageous; don't be scared to ask for a proposal.
2 comments:
Andrew, Nice article. Let me put few more catalogs, can you help me understand the difference?
Offering Catalog
Product Catalog
Service Catalog
Billing Catalog
Rating Catalog
I have my own understanding on these based on the telcos I have worked past 15 odd yrs. Want to get your view on this please?
Cheers,
Binoo.
Hi Binoo
Thanks for your comment. I think there is still more explanation required around the concept of "catalog" as it is a commonly used (and misused) word within Telco.
What you call "Offering Catalog is what I would call the "Sales Catalog" that contains the Product Offerings and their associated prices that can be applied to a particular sales channel/geoghraphy/market segment.
A Product Catalog is usually a synonym for the “Sales Catalog” but it is worth testing this assumption with the business.
Service Catalog is a phrase that has become more prevalent with ITIL and refers to an undefined mix of CFSs and RFSs – again this needs to be confiremed with the business.
I personally haven’t ever come across “Billing Catalog” or “Rating Catalog”.
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